It’s uncommon to hear an investor openly say they want to fund weird and crazy ideas, yet that’s precisely the philosophy driving Prototype Capital as it enters 2026 with a new flagship vehicle focused squarely on frontier technology. Led by founder Andreas Klinger, Prototype has built a reputation on backing deeply technical founders pursuing ambitious, unconventional ideas, and its latest Fund III reflects growing confidence from European limited partners that high-risk, high-reward innovation can flourish on the continent.
Record Momentum as Fund III Closes Quickly
Prototype’s growth trajectory over the past few years has been remarkable. Portfolio companies backed at early stages collectively raised over $1 billion in 2025 alone, with 15 European startups driving momentum in robotics, automation, and frontier AI. Investors responded rapidly to Prototype’s performance, pushing Fund III to close ahead of plan and 25% above its initial target, supported by a base of family offices, founders, and operators predominantly from Europe.
The team also embraces radical transparency, publishing fund updates in public, a rare practice signalling confidence in its strategy and outcomes.
Performance That Turns Heads
Prototype’s earlier funds rank in the top 1–5% globally by performance:
- Fund I (2019): 4.9x MOIC
- Growth Fund (2022): 5.6x MOIC
- Fund II (2022): 2.4x MOIC
These figures reflect early conviction in companies that later achieved strong capital raises and validation from strategic investors worldwide.
A Philosophy Rooted in Obsession
For Klinger, investing isn’t about spreadsheets; it’s about obsession. He looks for founders who cannot stop thinking about their problems, working on ideas before they’re even “company ready”. As he says, “If I’m not intellectually and emotionally engaged, the founder will feel it immediately.” That mindset has guided Prototype into backing projects that feel “insane in a good way”, ventures that might have been dismissed by more conservative investors but which hold the potential to redefine markets.
Prototype’s portfolio spans a broad array of frontier technologies from robotics and autonomous systems to AI tooling and infrastructure platforms.
Robotics and Automation at the Leading Edge
Robotics and automation figure prominently in Prototype’s current focus. Companies in the portfolio include:
- Sunrise Robotics industrial automation with autonomous robotic cells that learn through simulation rather than manual programming
- Rollo Robotics and Isembard advanced robotics platforms
- Sensmore autonomous mining machines
- HIGHCAT reconnaissance drone systems
These startups exemplify the shift toward embodied intelligence: machines that perceive, reason, and operate in dynamic, real-world environments. Advances in perception and reasoning, powered by modern AI, have made robots capable of handling variation and complexity at scale, cracking what was once one of the hardest problems in automation.
AI, Developer Tools and Connectivity
On the software and AI front, Prototype backs ventures like LUMA, Dust, and DX companies pushing multimodal AI, next-generation developer tools, and world models combining sensors, physics and text. Infrastructure names such as ZED, Fly.io, and Cal.com expand the fund’s reach into platforms enabling developers globally. There’s also emerging innovation in connectivity, such as wireless charging technology from Willo.
Among these, LUMA AI stands out as a breakout success, the second company in Prototype’s history to exceed a billion-dollar valuation. Notably, LUMA transitioned from video AI models into broad multimodal systems that can ingest diverse real-world data, a testament to the kind of frontier thinking Prototype seeks.
Driving Europe’s Tech Sovereignty
Beyond performance metrics, Klinger positions Prototype as an activist investor for European tech sovereignty. He cautions that Europe risks losing industrial capabilities if foundational sectors like robotics and automation shift entirely to Asia or the US. Recent sales of major European assets underscore that urgency.
To this end, Fund III focuses on technologies critical to reindustrialisation, from motors and sensors to power electronics and manufacturing processes, ensuring startups can scale without relocating overseas.
Looking Ahead: Beyond Hype to Impact
While acknowledging the challenges, such as navigating the balance between rapid growth and sustainability, Klinger remains optimistic. He believes Europe’s deep technical talent, paired with environments that encourage hardware hustle and “failure as learning”, can produce companies that don’t just compete but lead globally.
Prototype’s message to founders is clear: if you’re building something that shouldn’t exist but must exist, we want to hear from you. The fund’s latest close signals that the weird, the ambitious, and the technically audacious are not only welcome they’re the future.
